Henry A. Norman

Major Henry Arthur Norman was among the first African American military pilots during World War II. Although a member of the 598th Field Artillery Battalion (and not the famed 332nd Fighter Group or 477th Bombardment Group), he trained at Tuskegee and is GeneRally counted among the Tuskegee Airmen. A career military man, he served as part of the peacetime occupation forces in Germany, seeing armed combat again during the Korean War. He eventually becoming a commissioned officer during an era in which that was rare for African-Americans, overseeing the 20th Army Air Corps. After a rescue mission following the North Sea Flood of 1953 he was personally presented an award for meritorious conduct by the Queen of the Netherlands. Following an honorable discharge from the Army, he earned a PhD in Education from the Ohio State University, and became the principal of the Lincoln School in Gallipolis. He was a direct, male-line descendent of black Revolutionary War hero Bazabeel Norman.